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Kinder's Surprise

28 January 2011

Lauren David Peden

Kinder Aggugini with model Hilary Rhoda at the launch of his Macy's collection

IT was snowing mightily in New York on Wednesday night, but
inside the Grammercy Park Hotel, things were hot-hot-hot. In one
corner of the glass-roofed bar, Alexandra Richards spun tunes from
John Denver, Led Zeppelin and Aerosmith. In another, leggy models
(clad in pretty silk sheaths and surprisingly sophisticated rompers
with trompe-l'oeil pockets and polka dot trim) warmed themselves
beneath a blazing heat lamp. And in the adjoining sitting room,
designer Kinder Aggugini held court, welcoming Hilary
Rhoda, Irina Shayk, Mickey Boardman and Emma Snowdon-Jones to
the party celebrating his spring/summer 2011 capsule collection for
Macy's.

"They came to me," Aggugini told us of his unlikely partnership with America's
biggest department store. "I wouldn't have thought in my wildest
dreams to call up Mr Macy and say 'Hul-loh, this is Kinder from
London.' I was so much in disbelief when they called. I thought
this is a joke - or else they want me for the Macy's Thanksgiving
Day Parade."

His limited-edition capsule collection will be carried in Macy's
Impulse department, which features a new designer collection every
two months and is available in nearly 400 doors nationwide (Karl
Lagerfeld's offering will launch in September - read more about it here).

"I went out and looked at the competition and most of them took
their own designs and translated them in cheaper fabric and cheaper
manufacturing," Aggugini said of the recent high-low designer
collaborations at stores like H&M and Target. "The result, to
me, was diabolical."